RSA administers several grant programs. Many of these programs are supported by the RSA.ED.GOV web site, which allows RSA grantees to report on the progress being made during their grant. The following grant programs are supported by the MIS. Click on a tab to view information about the RSA program. You'll find a brief description of each grant program, followed by a list of RSA reports and forms supporting that program.

Vocational Rehabilitation State Grants

CFDA Number: 84.126A - Formula grant

Title IV of WIOA

Information about the Vocational Rehabilitation State Grants program can be found in the following RSA-MIS forms and reports.

ARR - RSA Annual Review Report. ARR: This is a good place to start if you want an overview of your state VR agency. This report - prepared by RSA - combines information from other reports to show how the agency is performing as compared to other agencies and prior years..

American Indian Vocational Rehabilitation Services (AIVRS)

CFDA Number: 84.250 - Discretionary grant

The purpose of this program is to assist tribal governments to develop or to increase their capacity to provide a program of vocational rehabilitation (VR) services, in a culturally relevant manner, to American Indians with disabilities residing on or near federal or state reservations. The program’s goal is to enable these individuals, consistent with their individual strengths, resources, priorities, concerns, abilities, capabilities, and informed choice, to prepare for and engage in gainful employment. Program services are provided under an individualized plan for employment and may include native healing services.

The program provides financial assistance for the establishment and operations of VR services programs for American Indians with disabilities living on or near a federal or state reservation.

Information about the American Indian Vocational Rehabilitation Services (AIVRS) program can be found in the following RSA-MIS forms and reports.

Automated Personalization Computing Project

CFDA Number: 84.421A - Discretionary grant

The purpose of the Automated Personalization Computing Project (APCP) is to improve outcomes for individuals with disabilities by increasing access to information and communication technologies (ICT) through automatic personalization of needed assistive technology (AT). Under the APCP, an information technology (IT) infrastructure would be created to allow users of ICT to store preferences in the cloud or other technology, which then would allow supported Internet–capable devices they are using to automatically run their preferred AT solutions. This IT infrastructure will ultimately provide better educational opportunities, ease transitions between school and the workforce, and improve productivity in the workplace.

Information about the Automated Personalization Computing Project program can be found in the following RSA-MIS forms and reports.

Capacity-Building Program

CFDA Number: 84.315C&D - Discretionary grant

Sec. 21 requires RSA to reserve one percent of funds appropriated each year for programs under Titles III, VI and VII to make awards to minority entities and Indian tribes to carry out activities under the Rehabilitation Act and to state or public or private nonprofit agencies to support capacity-building projects designed to provide outreach and technical assistance to minority entities and American Indian tribes to promote their participation in activities under the Rehabilitation Act.

Information about the Capacity-Building Program program can be found in the following RSA-MIS forms and reports.

Client Assistance Program (CAP)

CFDA Number: 84.161A - Formula grant

The purpose of this program is to advise and inform clients, client applicants, and other individuals with disabilities of all the available services and benefits under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, and of the services and benefits available to them under Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). In addition, grantees may assist and advocate for clients and client applicants in relation to projects, programs, and services provided under the Rehabilitation Act. In providing assistance and advocacy under Title I of the Rehabilitation Act, a CAP agency may provide assistance and advocacy with respect to services that are directly related to employment for the client or client applicant.

Agencies designated by the governor to provide CAP services help clients or client applicants pursue concerns they have with programs funded under the Rehabilitation Act. The governor may designate a public or private entity to operate the CAP.

Information about the Client Assistance Program (CAP) program can be found in the following RSA-MIS forms and reports.

Independent Living Services for Older Individuals Who Are Blind

CFDA Number: 84.177 - Formula grant

Grants are made to states to support services for individuals age 55 or older whose severe visual impairment makes competitive employment difficult to obtain but for whom independent living goals are feasible.

Funds are used to: provide independent living services to older individuals who are blind; conduct activities that will improve or expand services for these individuals; and conduct activities to improve public understanding of the problems facing these individuals. For example, services are provided to help persons served under this program adjust to their blindness by increasing their ability to care for their individual needs.

Information about the Independent Living Services for Older Individuals Who Are Blind program can be found in the following RSA-MIS forms and reports.

RSA-7-OB - Independent Living Services for Older Individuals who are Blind. RSA-7-OB: Annual Report Independent Living Services for Older Individuals who are Blind.

National Technical Assistance Center on Transition

CFDA Number: 84.326E - Discretionary grant

The purpose of the NTACT is to assist state education agencies, local education agencies, State VR agencies and other VR service providers to implement evidence–based and promising practices to ensure students with disabilities, stay in school, progress in school, and graduate with knowledge, skills, and supports needed to succeed in postsecondary education and employment.

Information about the National Technical Assistance Center on Transition program can be found in the following RSA-MIS forms and reports.

There are no grantees or grant awards in Alabama for this program in this system.

Protection and Advocacy of Individual Rights (PAIR)

CFDA Number: 84.240 - Formula grant

The Protection and Advocacy of Individual Rights (PAIR) program supports the protection and advocacy system in each state to protect the legal and human rights of individuals with disabilities. In order to be eligible for advocacy services from the PAIR program, an individual with a disability must meet three criteria. First, the individual’s concern must be beyond the scope of the Client Assistance Program (Sec. 112, Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended). Second, the individual must be ineligible for services from the Protection and Advocacy of Developmental Disabilities (PADD) program funded under Part C of the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act of 2000 (DD Act). Finally, the individual must also be ineligible for the Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness (PAIMI) program funded under the Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness Act.

Each PAIR program must set annual priorities and objectives to meet the needs of individuals with disabilities in each state. Most PAIR programs set priorities and objectives aimed at reducing barriers to education, employment, transportation, and housing. In addition, PAIR programs advocate on behalf of individuals with significant disabilities to promote community integration and full participation in society.

Eligible systems have the authority to pursue legal, administrative, and other appropriate remedies or approaches to protect and advocate for the rights of individuals with disabilities. Protection and advocacy systems may be housed in public or private entities.

Information about the Protection and Advocacy of Individual Rights (PAIR) program can be found in the following RSA-MIS forms and reports.

Randolph Sheppard Vending Facility Program

CFDA Number: No CDFA -

The purpose of the Randolph-Sheppard program is to provide individuals who are blind with employment, enlarge their economic opportunities, and stimulate them to become self-supporting. The Vending Facility Program authorized by the Randolph-Sheppard Act provides persons who are blind with remunerative employment through the operation of vending facilities on federal and other property. The program, enacted into law in 1936, was intended to enhance employment opportunities for trained, licensed blind persons to operate facilities. The law was subsequently amended in 1954 and again in 1974 to ultimately ensure individuals who are blind a priority in the operation of vending facilities, which included cafeterias, snack bars, and automatic vending machines, on federal property. The program has broadened from federal locations to also include state, county, municipal, and private installations. However, the priority provisions of the Randolph-Sheppard Act apply only to the operation of vending facilities on federal property. Under the Randolph Sheppard Program, state licensing agencies recruit, train, license and place individuals who are blind as operators of vending facilities located on federal and other properties. The Randolph-Sheppard Act authorizes a particular blind individual to conduct specified activities in a particular location through a license granted by the state.

Information about the Randolph Sheppard Vending Facility Program program can be found in the following RSA-MIS forms and reports.

Rehabilitation Training - Long-Term

CFDA Number: 84.129 - Discretionary grant

The Long-Term Training Program supports academic training grants that are awarded to colleges and universities with undergraduate and graduate programs in the field of rehabilitation. Grantees must direct 75 percent of the funds they receive to trainee scholarships. The statute requires trainees who receive assistance either to work two years for every year of assistance in public or private nonprofit rehabilitation agencies or related agencies, including professional corporations or professional practice groups that have service arrangements with a state agency, or to pay back the assistance they received. Grant recipients under the Long-Term Training Program are required to build closer relationships between training institutions and state VR agencies; promote careers in VR; identify potential employers who would meet the trainee’s payback requirements; and ensure that data on the employment of students are accurate.

Information about the Rehabilitation Training - Long-Term program can be found in the following RSA-MIS forms and reports.

Rehabilitation Training - State VR In Service Training

CFDA Number: 84.265 - Discretionary grant

Of the funds appropriated for the Rehabilitation Training Program, 15 percent must be used to support in-service training. In FY 2010, the Rehabilitation Training Program made 75 basic in-service training awards to state VR agencies to support projects for training state VR agencies’ personnel in program areas essential to the effective management of the VR programs under the Rehabilitation Act, and in skill areas that enable VR personnel to improve their ability to provide VR services leading to employment outcomes for individuals with disabilities. The In-Service Training Program continued to play a critical role in helping state VR agencies to develop and implement their CSPD standards for hiring, training and retaining qualified rehabilitation professionals, to provide for succession planning, to provide leadership development and capacity-building, and to provide training on the Rehabilitation Act in their respective states.

Information about the Rehabilitation Training - State VR In Service Training program can be found in the following RSA-MIS forms and reports.

Rehabilitation Training and Technical Assistance Center for Program Evaluation and Quality Assurance

CFDA Number: 84.263B - Discretionary grant

The purpose of the Program Evaluation and Quality Assurance Training and Technical Assistance Center (PEQATAC) is to assist State VR agencies to improve performance management by building their capacity to carry out high–quality program evaluations and quality assurance practices that promote continuous program improvement.

Information about the Rehabilitation Training and Technical Assistance Center for Program Evaluation and Quality Assurance program can be found in the following RSA-MIS forms and reports.

Supported Employment (SE) Services for Individuals with the Most Significant Disabilities

CFDA Number: 84.187 - Formula grant

Also known as Supported Employment for Individuals With the Most Significant Disabilities, Title VI-B State Grants

This program provides grants to assist states in developing and implementing collaborative programs with appropriate entities to provide programs of supported employment services for individuals with the most significant disabilities who require supported employment services to achieve employment outcomes. Grant funds are administered under a state plan supplement to the Title I state plan for vocational rehabilitation (VR) services designated by each state.

Supported employment grant funds are used to supplement funds provided under the state VR grants program for the costs of providing supported employment services. Program funds may be used to supplement assessments under the Title I program and supplement other VR services necessary to help individuals with the most significant disabilities find work in the integrated labor market. Funds cannot be used to provide the extended services necessary to maintain individuals in employment after the end of supported employment services, which usually do not exceed 18 months.

Information about the Supported Employment (SE) Services for Individuals with the Most Significant Disabilities program can be found in the following RSA-MIS forms and reports.

Training of Interpreters for Individuals Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing or Deaf-Blind

CFDA Number: 84.160C - Discretionary grant

The purpose of the Experiential Learning Training, TA, and Dissemination Center is to provide experiential learning for baccalaureate degree English-ASL Interpretation graduates to prepare them to become highly qualified and nationally certified sign language interpreters. The purpose of the Specialized Area Training, TA, and Dissemination Center is for a national consortium to develop and deliver training modules of sufficient scope and sequence to be meaningful and provide competence in the specialized subject area; to working interpreters who need to develop a new skill area or enhance an existing skill area.

Information about the Training of Interpreters for Individuals Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing or Deaf-Blind program can be found in the following RSA-MIS forms and reports.

CFDA Number: 84.264F - Discretionary grant

The purpose of the Vocational Rehabilitation Technical Assistance Center for Targeted Communities (VRTAC-TC) is to enable economically disadvantaged, historically underserved individuals with disabilities from low-income communities to achieve competitive integrated employment. To this end, the VRTAC-TC provides State Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) agency staff and related professionals with technical assistance and training improving their ability to reach out to targeted communities and populations, build partnerships with local community leaders, and provide comprehensive support services to overcome barriers to VR participation and quality employment outcomes.

Information about the Vocational Rehabilitation Technical Assistance Center - Targeted Communities program can be found in the following RSA-MIS forms and reports.

CFDA Number: 84.264H - Discretionary grant

The purpose of the Vocational Rehabilitation Technical Assistance Center for Youth with Disabilities (VRTAC–Y) is to provide TA to State VR agencies to improve services to and outcomes of: (1) students with disabilities, as defined in section 7(37) of the Rehabilitation Act, who are in school and who are not receiving services under the IDEA; and (2) youth with disabilities, as defined in section 7(42) of the Rehabilitation Act, who are no longer in school and who are not employed, including dropouts.

Information about the Vocational Rehabilitation Technical Assistance Center for Youth with Disabilities program can be found in the following RSA-MIS forms and reports.

There are no grantees or grant awards in Alabama for this program in this system.

Workforce Innovation Technical Assistance Center

CFDA Number: 84.264G - Discretionary grant

The purpose of the Workforce Innovation Technical Assistance Center (WINTAC) is to provide training and TA to State VR agencies on the new statutory requirements imposed by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) of 2014. The WINTAC will develop and provide training and TA to State VR agency staff and related rehabilitation professionals and service providers to help them develop the skills and processes needed to meet the requirements of WIOA.

Information about the Workforce Innovation Technical Assistance Center program can be found in the following RSA-MIS forms and reports.

There are no grantees or grant awards in Alabama for this program in this system.